What looked like a long, losing winter for Cal and Stanford has gotten shorter and sweeter with the results of the past six weeks.

While the Bears and Cardinal appear better than expected, the Pacific-10 Conference is worse. You don”t lose three of the top five picks in the NBA draft, and seven of the first 21, and not experience a dramatic drop in quality.

That doesn”t mean the Bears or Cardinal will win the league title or even challenge for the league title. But both are good candidates for middle-of-the-Pac finishes, which would far exceed projections — Cal was picked eighth in the preseason poll, Stanford ninth — and both should be in the hunt for postseason bids in one form (NCAA tournament) or another (NIT).

The Bears and Cardinal have benefited from smooth transitions to new coaches and strong guard play. Cal point guard Jerome Randle and Stanford wing Anthony Goods are two of the most improved players in the conference.

Meanwhile, the Pac-10 is mediocre at all positions. There are few elite point guards and fewer dominant big men. Even mighty UCLA has a hole in the middle of its lineup, resulting from Kevin Love”s departure to the NBA.

The Bruins are favored to win their fourth consecutive regular-season title, but not overwhelmingly so. For the first time in several years, they look vulnerable.

“Maybe UCLA hasn”t appeared to be as dominant as one might have expected going into the season, but they”ll get that worked out,” Cal coach Mike Montgomery said recently.

“They”re still the favorite. I don”t know how wide open it is for some (teams). Maybe four or five feel like they have a real legitimate chance to compete for a championship, so perhaps that makes it wide open.”

Don”t confuse parity with quality. Based on the results of non-conference play, the Pac-10 is the fifth-best league in the land behind the Big East, Atlantic Coast, Big Ten and Big 12.

It”s 1-9 against ranked teams (Arizona over Gonzaga being the lone victory). It”s 13-16 against the other major conferences. And its top team in the Sagarin power ratings, Arizona State, needed overtime to beat IUPUI. (That”s Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis.)

The conference also has a series of bad losses: Oregon to Oakland (Mich.), Arizona to UAB, Oregon State to Yale and even UCLA to Michigan. If the Pac-10 kingpin can”t beat a mediocre team from the Big Ten, the league has problems.

The sagging performance is partly due to the departures of Love, Russell Westbrook, Brook Lopez, Robin Lopez, O.J. Mayo, Jerryd Bayless and Ryan Anderson — all seven were first-round picks.

The conference”s problems are compounded by the lack of an elite team. The Bruins might become a Final Four threat by March, but at this point they have a retooled frontcourt and are relying heavily on freshmen. It would be a mild surprise if they don”t lose four league games — maybe even five.

The teams expected to challenge UCLA for the title, Arizona State and USC, are winless against ranked opponents and have struggled against mediocre ones.